Why we need the humanities more than

ever, by the President of Yale

The Yale campus: 'We develop our emotional intelligence through the humanities'
Image: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

23 Mar 2017

Peter Salovey
President, Yale University

In our complex and interconnected world, we need leaders of imagination, understanding,

and emotional intelligencemen and women who will move beyond polarizing debates and
tackle the challenges we face. To cultivate such leaders, we must value and invest in the
humanities.

I am a psychologist by training, and I study human emotions. Art, literature, history, and
other branches of the humanities are vital for developing our emotional intelligence
essential to understanding ourselves and others. They help us grapple with uncertainty,
understand complexity, and empathize.

Consider what happens when you read a novel. Engrossed in the narrative, you are invited
to imagine the world from a characters perspective. You think about the interplay between
a persons desires and her actions. When you listen to music, go to the theater, or visit a
museum, you have an emotional responseone that connects you with other people and
new perspectives.

We develop our emotional intelligenceand learn skills of empathy, imagination, and

understandingthrough the humanities. These skills, if cultivated, enable leaders to
respond successfully to challenges and opportunities in every sector. Our scientists are
better at their work if they read literature; our diplomats and our generals are more effective
when they understand languages; our data scientists are able to think beyond algorithms
when they experience art and music.

Around the world, we can see the gains of globalization. Debates continue, however, about
how to promote more inclusive and equitable growth, embracing a diversity of peoples and
cultures and respecting the environment.

The humanities must be part of this conversation. Leadership on these difficult issues
demands understanding more than the bottom line; it requires an appreciation of all that
makes life meaningful and complete. As Lei Zhang, a successful business leader and Yale
alumnus, said, The humanities are fundamental to reason. Isolating data and technology
from the humanities is like trying to swim without water; you can have all the moves of
Michael Phelps, but you still wont end up getting anywhere. The humanities provide the
contextthe possibility of real understandingfor all that the future promises.

Reaching across divides

To harness the extraordinary power of the humanities, we must ensure they are widely
accessible. Institutions like my own, as guardians of some of the worlds greatest cultural
treasures, must work to share the joy and wonder of the humanities with the public.
Otherwise, potential leaders of the future will lose out on the opportunity to learn from the
humanities.

Last year my colleague and friend, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, wrote eloquently
about the importance of scholarship and education in addressing inequality. Cultural and
educational institutions can also make the world a more equal and inclusive place through
the transformative power of the humanities.

I recently had the privilege of touring the new National Museum of African American History
and Culture in Washington, D.C. As I walked through this remarkable space, I was able to
see, hear, and imagine the story of African Americans in the United States. I was particularly
drawn to an exhibit about the influence of black Americans on music. My hobby and
passion is bluegrass music, so I was fascinated by the exchange between African-
American blues musicians and old-time Appalachian music played by Scotch-Irish
immigrants. Understanding this influence made me listen to music I knew well with new
earshearing cadences and rhythms I had never heard before.

Museums make such moments of emotional and intellectual awakening possible. Today,
technology can help us share these moments even more widely. Scholars at Yale, for
instance, have partnered with the Library of Congress to launch Photogrammar, a website
that allows users anywhere in the world to peruse, search, and visualize 170,000
photographs created as part of Roosevelts New Deal. These iconic images capture the raw
emotion of people living through the Great Depression. In another project, Transcribe@Yale,
we are crowdsourcing the transcription of documents in the Kilpatrick Collection of
Cherokee Manuscripts, housed at Yales Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, so
we can understand and preserve aspects of Oklahoma Cherokee culture that would
otherwise be lost.
Yale Photogrammar - Photos from the FSA organized

Despite the promise of technology to connect people, too often we remain isolated in our
own narrow circles. Joining the humanities with new digital tools can help us reach across
dividesthrough time and spaceand allow more people to explore our rich cultural
resources.

'The heritage of the human experience is impoverished'

The problems we face today are grave. Poverty, disease, climate change, and threats to
national and global security test even our greatest leaders. At such times, it may seem
prudent to forget about art, music, literature, and languages.

We have been here before. In 1939, as war raged in Europe and Asia, Yale President
Charles Seymour worried that the liberal arts would be neglected. Although the public did
not think they were useful, Seymour was convinced the humanities were indispensable.
Without them, he wrote movingly, the heritage of the human experience is
impoverished.
Now, as then, we must value the humanities even in the midst of conflict and division. Only
through the humanities can we prepare leaders of empathy, imagination, and understanding
responsive and responsible leaders who embrace complexity and diversity. Our
institutions must also play a leadership role by making the treasures of the humanities
widely available. It is our responsibility to prepare the leaders of tomorrow, and to elevate
and protect the heritage of the human experience that we all share.

Written by

Peter Salovey, President, Yale University

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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